Fungal cell wall degrading lysozyme for use as an inhibitor of dental biofilms

摘要

Disclosed is an isolated fungal enzyme having lysozyme activity. Further disclosed is a fungal polypeptide having lysozyme activity and belonging to the GH25 family, wherein the enzyme is selected from the group consisting of (a) a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence, which has at least 80% identity with amino acids 1 to 233 of SEQ ID NO:2; (b) a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence, which has at least 80% identity with the polypeptide encoded by the lysozyme encoding part of the nucleotide sequence inserted into a plasmid present in strain DSM16084; (c) a polypeptide which is encoded by a nucleotide sequence which hybridizes under high stringency conditions with a polynucleotide probe consisting of the complementary strand of nucleotides 84 to 782 of SEQ ID NO:1; or (d) a fragment of (a), (b) or (c) that has lysozyme activity. Further disclosed is the use of such peptides in the manufacture of a dental composition for inhibiting bio-film formation in a subject.